Slide miter saws are well known in the art as they provide extended cutting range over non-sliding miter saws. Referring to FIGS. 1-2, typical prior art slide miter saws have a base 11, a rotatable table 12 attached to the base 11, and a saw assembly which comprises a trunnion 16, a pivot an 17A pivotally attached to trunnion 16, a motor 25 a blade 19 driven by the motor 25, an upper blade guard 17 for covering an upper part of blade 19, and a lower blade guard 18 pivotally attached to the upper blade guard 17 for covering a lower part of blade 19, Motor 25 is typically attached to the upper blade guard 17.
The slide miter saws also typically have a movable fence assembly 20 attached to the base 11. Movable fence assembly 20 extends laterally across table 12, against which a workpiece can be positioned and supported for performing a cutting operation thereon. Movable fence assembly 20 includes a fixed fence 21 attached to base 11, and a movable fence 22 connected to the fixed fence 21. Typically, movable fence 22 is slidably attached to fixed fence 21.
In addition, slide miter saws have a mechanism to enable the user to move the saw assembly horizontally along the table 12. Referring to FIG. 1, most slide miter saws 10 accomplish this by connecting the saw assembly to at least one rail 15, which is slidably attached to a support housing 14 connected to the table 11 (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,885).
Alternatively, slide miter saws 10′ have at least one rail 15 that may be slidably connected to table 12, as shown in FIG. 2. Support housing 14′ is then fixedly attached to the rail(s) 15. In addition, support housing 14: is attached to trunnion 16. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,352.
Another arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,732, which is wholly incorporated herein by reference, where rail 15 is fixedly attached to table 12, and support housing 14 (and the saw assembly) slide along rail 15.
With such arrangements, the user would pull the saw assembly forwardly, move the saw assembly downwardly, then push the saw assembly rearwardly for cutting the workpiece.